Lun Yu – The Analects of Confucius

Lunyu IX. 31. (240)

The necessity of reflection.
1. "How the flowers of the aspen-plum flutter and turn! Do I not think of you? But your house is distant."
2. The Master said, "It is the want of thought about it. How is it distant?"

Legge IX.30.

The flowers of the cherry tree,
How they wave about!
It's not that I do not think of you,
But your home is so far away.
The Master commented, 'He did not really think of her. If he did, there is no such thing as being far away.